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THE BUILDING OF THE CAPITAL 

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To /Senators and Members : 

What is the United States ? What as a nation ? What, relatively, in area 
and power, among the nations of the earth % De Bow says : 

" The territorial extent of the republic (2,936,166 square miles) is, therefore, nearly ten 
times as large as Great Britain and France combined ; three times as large as the whole of 
France, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, and Denmark 
together ; one and a half times as large as the Russian empire in Europe ; one-sixth less 
only than the area covered by the fifty or sixty empires, States, and republics of Europe ; of 
equal extent with the Roman empire or that of Alexander, neither of which is said to have 
exceeded 3,000,000 square miles." — Be Bote's Statistical View of the United States. 

That was in 1854. Since then, in 1867, Sitka, with its 577,390 square miles, 
has been added to the republic, making the territorial area of the United States 
over 3,500,000 square miles — of greater extent than the area covered by "the 
fifty or sixty empires, States, and republics of Europe " — of greater extent 
than the ancient empires of Rome and Alexander. Nor only that. The vast 
resources, the mighty energies, developed by our people and nation in the re- 
bellion, demonstrated that in all the elements of physical and moral power, 
the United States surpasses all other empires, either ancient or modern ! 

But what is Washington ? 

Is it, in its present 'condition, a fitting capital for an empire so vast and 
grand? 

Now, the great struggle of Christendom in its social and intellectual rela- 
tions, for many centuries, has been that of a constantly advancing civilization 
to expel all traces of the old primeval barbarism ; and this struggle has resulted 
among other grand humanizing triumphs in the establishment of institutions 
of learning, art, and science, in systems of public instruction, of works of pub- 
lic utility and convenience, and of domestic comfort, in the place of the old 
squalor, ignorance, and wretchedness of savage and barbaric life. These tri- 
umphs have necessarily been very expensive. They have cost to the different 

States of Christendom hundreds of millions— wen thousands of 
millions of dollars. 

Indeed, in all ages, a similar struggle has influenced man. In the ancient 
world, in the savage or semi-savage state, man, crowded without order in com- 
munities, is apparently satisfied with the mud hut and streetless village. Never- 
theless, even there, amid the indolence of semi-barbaric life, man is all uncon- 
sciously aspiring for something better — ever reaching out for something 
higher and nobler. At first a warrior, fierce and predatory, and apparently 
only bent on war and spoils, or a nomad with his herds, he rises succes- 
sively to the man of the city and society. Contrast the Rome of Romu- 
lus with the Rome of Augustus ! The Athens of Theseus with the Athens 
of Pericles ! The Germany of Arminius with the Germany of King Wil- 
liam ! Or the France of the Kelt, or Frank, with the France of Napoleon ! 
The primeval warrior, the savage bandit or robber, the wretched man of 
squalor, tenanted in the tileless hut and streetless village, or the rude nomad 



'7* 

' — S'L. 



wandering with his herds — all his wealth — passes into the founder of power- 
ful cities and states — the mighty architects' of majestic temples, building's, and 
columns — the builders of magnificent roads, canals, aqueducts, and baths — 
the projector^ of new societies, lavishing hundreds and thousands of 
millions m grand civilizing achievements, in multiplying domestic com- 
forts, and in cultivating the arts and sciences amid national grandem - and 
magnificence. 

In this beneficent social and intellectual advance — this humanizing pro- 
gress — the finest traits of man's character — his noblest ambition — has mani- 
fested itself in the embellishment of the capital city of his tribe or nation — 
in his labors to aggrandize, as well as to beautify it — in the princely national 
pride with which he has collected within it the evidences of his genius, his 
progress, and his power ! Witness Rome and Athens ! Witness Nineveh 
and Sidon ! Witness Carthage, Persepolis, and Isfahan ! Witness London, 
Paris, and Vienna ! Witness the transactions of the world over, whether bar- 
barous or civilized ! Only the political capital of the empire of greatest 
power and wealth whether ancient or modern — only Washington 

forms an exception / 

In proof of this fact, so humiliating to every public-spirited or patriotic 
American, contrast Washington with the capitals of Europe — with London, 
Rome, or Paris ! With even Lisbon, the capital of the little kingdom of 
Portugal, with its numerous churches, its many charitable institutions, its fine 
public and private buildings, its royal academy of sciences, its royal library, 
its observatories, its royal palaces, its fine streets, and its magnificent aque- 
duct, built entirely of marble, and supplying the city with fresh water. 

Our people, in the last fifty years, have been so earnest and determined 
upon the banishment of the great political relic of the old barbarism in the 
State, that they have been really blind to the social and domestic relics of the 
old primeval misery, the squalor of the old primeval darkness, surrounding 
them here in their political metropolis. Really a cruel and mischievous blind- 
ness ! Is it not time that it should be cured ? Is it not a reproach to our 
people, even a stigma upon the nation, that, like Constantinople in Europe, 
like the only representative of barbarism amid the noble Christian civilization 
of Europe. Washington, in this age and generation, should present so many 
of the distinguishing marks of the old barbarism — of a Turkish or a Tartar 
town? 

This is no caricature. Ungewitter, in his Geography of Europe, in allud- 
ing to the fact that learning and the fine arts have their seat in Europe, de- 
scribes most of the European countries as "noted for their excellent roads, 
and above all, England :" " only Turkey is without them." Only Turkey, the 
representative of barbarism amid the grandeur of the surrounding Christian 
civilization. Take from Macfarlane's Destiny of Turkey — indeed, from any 
work upon Turkey — a description of Constantinople. What is it? Here 
and there a stately mosque or temple, a splendid palace, seraglio, or other 
similar structure, rising majestically in its barbarous architecture, amid the 
thousands of wretched wooden and other tenements, generally destitute of all 
modern conveniences, and situated upon unpaved and ungraded streets, filthy, 
and patroled and made hideous and perilous by swarms of dogs and other 
animals. 

Is not this also a faithful picture of Washington only a year ago ? Here 
and there a public building, magnificent in its material and architecture, rising 
amid wretched tenements, upon unpaved and ungraded streets, muddy, dusty, 
and filthy, and so many fields to the naturalist for the study of the habits and 
history of all domestic animals — horses, cows, hogs, and dogs ! The only 



change has been wrought by the enterprise of the Board of Public Works, 
and the ordinances of the Board of Health. 

Will Congress and the nation realize this ? Or shall Washington remain as 
it is, a lasting reproach to Congress and the nation — an ugly, unsightly monu- 
ment of the fact that, unlike all other Europeans, our people have no pride in 
their capital city ? It will not do to urge that the splendor of the capitals of 
Europe have been the work, for their private pleasure, of monarchs or despots, 
irresponsible in their power, and with unlimited means wrung by arbitrary 
taxation from un willing subjects. All classes and ranks in Europe feel a fer- 
vent national pride in their capitals — the humblest rustic provincial as well as 
the richest metropolitan. But the republics, ancient and modern — the people 
of those republics — the multitude — have manifested even a greater pride. 
Venice and the Italian republics are instances in modern periods ; but little \ 
Attica, in ancient times, furnishes a glorious illustration. Says Bancroft : 

' ' The public tmildmgs of Athens were, as all the world knows, numerous, costly, and 
splendid. The most opulent monarchs, the haughtiest princes, have not been able to equal 
what the energies of the Athenian multitude called into existence. The Romans could do 
no more than imitate : and when recently Prussia desired that the principal entrance into its 
royal city might be worthy of the pride of a rising power, its artists could propose nothing bet- 
ter than to reproduce the Propylsea of Athens. The dock-yard of Athens alone cost $900,000. 
The fortifications were on a gigantic scale. The city and its harbor were protected by walls 
sixty feet five inches high, and broad enough for two wagons to pass conveniently ; of faced 
stone, bound by iron bolts. The city and the harbor were connected by walls, one side of 
which measured more than four and a half, the other nearly four miles. These were origi- 
nally very expensive, and constantly required large expenditures for repairs. The Propylsea 
cost five years' labor, and $1,810,800 in money. Add to these the Odeon, the hippodromes, 
the aqueducts, the fountains, the public baths, the ornaments of the citadel, the temples of 
Victory, of Neptune, of Minerva, all adorned with the costliest works of art, the pavements 
of the streets, the public road to Eleusis, the numerous altars which pious superstition prodi- 
gally erected and endowed, and it will be evident that a State of but half a million of souls 
must have practised self-denial for the sake of public magnificence.'''' — Bancroft's Economy of 
Athens, pp. 272-73." 

Congress, as the representative power of the nation, should arouse itself in 
this matter. It should realize the fact that the improvement of Washington — 
the building of the Capital— is not a merely local matter— a petty 
job— but a great national work, in which the very character of the nation is 
deeply involved. It has been delayed too long. Diplomatic agents and visi- 
tors arriving here from foreign capitals are surprised at the condition of this 
capital — the wretched condition of its unpaved and ungraded streets — its want 
of the many conveniences of modern times ; and contrasting it with the Euro- 
pean cities form a mean opinion of the whole nation. Thus, indeed, have 
mainly been formed the feelings and sentiments which underlie the many cari- 
catures, the abuse, and depreciation of America by foreign writers, and have 
contributed largely to the injurious reputation entertained of our people and 
nation even in the minds of Europeans disposed to be friendly. 

We now begin to realize the character of the enterprise of Governor Heney 
D. Cooke, Alexander R. Shepheed, and their spirited associates in the Board 
of Public Works. It is to redeem our political metropolitan city from the re- 
proach of barbarism — to build the Capital — to build it in a manner com- 
mensurate with the power and grandeur of an empire so vast and, wealthy as 
the United States ! Who, then, will deny that theirs is a magnificent enter- 
prise — a grand national work, with a national as well as a local purpose — a 
work and purpose in which the nation is even more deeply interested than are 
the citizens of Washington ? And who says that theirs is not a noble ambi- 
tion — an ambition similar to one which in history distinguishes even the 
greatest of men, and upon the fruits of which rests their most encluring repu 
tations ! Suetonius tells us that Caesar Augustus boasted that "he found Home 



4 

of brick and left it of marble /" It was among his proudest boasts. It was 
his pride ! It was the fruit of a noble ambition, and he claimed it as his glory ! 
Nor was Augustus alone in tins. Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and the great 
Napoleon, among others, equally gloried in a like ambition ! They lavished 
the revenues of their empires in Hundreds of millions in the improve- 
ment of their metropolitan cities — in building roads, streets, and palaces — 
in constructing public parks, establishing institutions of learning, art, and sci- 
ence, and encouraging the progress of works of public and domestic utility ! 
They even, in their conquests, carried their ambition to aggrandize their own 
capitals to the criminal excess of despoiling other nations of the proudest 
products of their national genius — of statuary, paintings, and libraries. But 
even in that they illustrate a ruling ambition of even the greatest minds! 
They made themselves the representatives, the incarnation, of an ambition 
which has ruled, rules, and will ever rule all cultivated people ! So truly so, 
that when their rapacity shall have been forgotten, when the splendid records 
of their military genius, their battles, campaigns, and conquests, shall have 
perished — their fame as builders — as improvers of cities and empires, and as 
promoters of civilization — as benefactors of man — will survive green, bright, 
and glorious ! 

Like these, and with a purpose and spirit as great and beneficent, Henry D 
Cooke, Alexander R. Shepherd, and their able associates in the Board, en- 
gage in the work of building the Capital / Under no circumstances 
a light enterprise! They found Washington, not even of "brick," but of 
mud and ntbbish, and propose " to leave it of marble " — to make it a fitting 
capital, or lay the foundation of a fitting capital, for an empire so vast and 
grand as the United States! Will Congress sustain them in their enterprise? 
It cannot be done without its support. The expense will necessarily be great, 
for what has elsewhere cost other nations hundreds of millions can- 
not here be done for a few thousands, or a few millions ! Alone 
and unaided it is wholly out of the power of our people. Nor should Con- 
gress permit them even were they able. Washington is the capital of the em- 
pire — the property of our whole people. It should be the policy of Congress 
to retain it as such — the pride and glory of the nation to collect within it the 
evidences of its genius and power and grandeur. Will Congress not do it, or 
assist in doing it ? It can no longer doubt the good faith of our citizens to 
perform their part. It cannot, after the lengthy and searching investigation 
by the House District Committee — after the sewers and cesspools, and every 
vile avenue or reservoir of detraction and slander have been exhausted before 
it without developing a single instance of fraud or mismanagement against 
them — after such a trial and vindication, it cannot doubt the integrity of Gov- 
ernor Cooke or Mr. Shepherd, or their motives or ends. 

These gentlemen found Washington not of "brick," but of mud and rub- 
bish, and propose " to leave it of marble ! " They plan and work accordingly! 
Will not Congress, then, by liberal appropriations and proper legislation, aid 
them in their grand work ? All profess a fervent national pride — a pride in 
the empire ! Why not in the capital 1 Will not Congress, therefore, in the 
spirit, and with the pride and ambition which have characterized every people 
since the dawn of civilization — in the spirit and pride of the old republics — of 
glorious little Attica — unite with Governor Cooke and Alexander R. Shepherd 
in building the Capital upon a plan, and after a style, worthy of our 
people and nation — worthy of the power and genius and grandeur of the 
great Bepublican empire of modern times? 

W. DeWintton. 

Washington, D. C, March 28, 1872. 



